Thursday, April 30, 2009

Over 1500 University of Kentucky students held a flash rave at the William T. Young Library during finals week. I guess they didn't know you are supposed to be quit in a library. University of Kentucky Library Flash Mob Rave - UK Finals Week(video via YouTube)

April 29, 2009. University of Kentucky William T. Young Library Student Rave During Finals Week

In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan's popularity and policies moved American politics firmly to the right. In only 100 days, Barack Obama's politics and policies have shifted America way to the left.

The president is seeking to change the whole relationship between the government and the free-enterprise private sector. He is steering the country away from democratic capitalism and toward his big-government command-and-control vision. We are witnessing a triumph of government bureaucrats over entrepreneurs, investors, and small businesses.

And with Sen. Arlen Specter switching from Republican to Democrat, Obama can now move the nation even further to the left. A filibuster-proof Senate will mean even greater economic restructuring with expanded government control of health care and energy and increased unionization.

This looks very much like a war against investors, businesses, and entrepreneurs. Shareholder rights are being eviscerated. Political decisions are replacing the rule of law, the rule of bankruptcy courts, and free-market principles.

We are witnessing more spending, deficits, and debt-creation than anyone ever imagined. Bailout Nation has run amok. This started under Bush, but Obama is raising the stakes exponentially. (excerpt) read more at RealClearPolitics.com

The White House apologized for Joe Biden sticking his foot in his mouth while discussing swine flu. Biden tried to destroy the travel industry by warning against plane, train and subway travel. They try to explain "what he meant to say." The easiest course would be to muzzle him. CNN is reporting:

(CNN) — The White House apologized Thursday "if anybody was unduly alarmed" by Vice President Joe Biden's comments that seemed to suggest Americans should avoid air travel or confined spaces of any kind.

"What the vice president meant to say was the same thing that many members have said in the last few days," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. "And that is, if you feel sick, are exhibiting flu-like symptoms….that you should take precautions, that you should limit your travel."

President Obama announced today that Chrysler LLC would enter chapter 11 bankruptcy. After throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at Chrysler on the pretext that bankruptcy would be a horrible thing, Obama has now decided bankruptcy is a good thing. President Obama severely criticized the secured debt holders who would not agree to his terms. The four institutions that hold 70% of the secured debt were coerced into accepting a deal that is not in their best interest. They took TARP money and ,figuratively, "sold their soul to the devil." Now, they have to pay the price for that decision. If their sacrifice was for the taxpayers who bailed them out, this would be fair. Instead, the UAW is the recipient of their coerced largess. The other 30% of debt is held by small investors and hedge funds who received no government bailout. They balked at being asked to write off 70% of their money while the UAW is only taking a 50% "haircut." Under U.S. bankruptcy law, secured debtors should be in line in front of the UAW. These creditors rightly object to being asked to give away their money to the UAW. The hedge funds and pension funds involved have a fiduciary responsibility to get the best deal possible for their investors. Federal Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez has been assigned to the case. He was first appointed in 1995 and is up for reappointment later this year.

Here is the administration's just issued statement on Chrysler:Chrysler

Here is a graphic from pajamasmedia.com that illustrates the effect this record spending will have on the national deficit.

Here is the final vote tally from clerk.house.gov President Obama was very upset with House Republicans when none of them voted for his stimulus. He repeatedly brought the topic up in a recent closed door meeting. He threatened to use the legislative process of "reconciliation." Obama wants to be able to spread the blame for record deficit spending with Republicans. House Republicans aren't interested.

In response to the swine fly pandemic, the Mexican government has decided to lose all but essential services. This drastic response comes after another reported 17 deaths in Mexico. Essential services such as transport, supermarkets, trash collection and hospitals will remain open. Fox News reported:

Mexico's president told citizens on Wednesday to stay home for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy, after the World Health Organization raised its alert level and said a swine flu pandemic was imminent.

In his first televised address since the crisis erupted last week, President Felipe Calderon told Mexicans to stay home with their families. The country will suspend non-essential work and services, including some government ministries, from May 1-5.

"There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus," Calderon said.

Mexico is taking the drastic step after another 17 deaths were potentially linked to swine flu, bringing the total to as many as 176.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The facts do not support this statement and Nanci Pelosi should easily know the facts about Cap and trade. Just in case she has had another memory loss; here is what the experts at the CBO have projected. According to the Denver Post,

Two years ago, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that if climate legislation were enacted, low-income households would experience a 3.3 percent drop in income from higher prices associated with a 15 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions, with middle-income households losing 2.8 percent. (The Waxman-Markey climate bill calls for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020.)

More recently, the CBO estimated that "the price increases resulting from a 15 percent cut in CO2 emissions could cost the average household roughly $1,600 (in 2006 dollars)," with the greatest impact "relative to income, on lower-income households."

For just the second time in five years, Republicans have topped Democrats in the generic Congressional ballot. Rasmussen reported:

For just the second time in more than five years of daily or weekly tracking, Republicans now lead Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 38% would choose the Democrat. Thirty-one percent (31%) of conservative Democrats said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate.

Overall, the GOP gained two points this week, while the Democrats lost a point in support.

He has turned up at a gala at the Ritz-Carlton where there was a charity auction for cancer. Despite owing thousands in back taxes, former DC Mayor Marion Barry payed $800 bucks for an opera coat at the auction. He outbid CNN's Wolf Blitzer. MyFoxDC.com reported:

WASHINGTON - Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry owes thousands of dollars in back taxes, but that hasn't stopped him from buying his girlfriend an $800 coat.

Barry tells The Washington Post he bought the opera coat with his own money Saturday at a cancer auction. He says he topped CNN's Wolf Blitzer during the bidding.

"You see folks waving tea bags around -- let me just remind them I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care cuts over the long term, how we are gong to stabilize social security. Lets not play games."

Obama on Tea Party Protesters(video via YouTube)

President Obama thinks Americans who want less government spending are "playing games." He is open to discussion with the Tea Party attenders, if they want to talk about more government spending.

Based on the medias love affair with President Obama, this information is not surprising. Many news outlets are acting as Obama's biggest supporters. They propaganda the points he wants covered and ignore any negative news. We already knew Rahm Emanuel has daily secret phone calls with the media. The Washington Post reports:

Last Tuesday evening, Rahm Emanuel quietly slipped into an eighth-floor office at the Watergate.

As white-jacketed waiters poured red and white wine and served a three-course salmon and risotto dinner, the White House chief of staff spent two hours chatting with some of Washington's top journalists -- excusing himself to take a call from President Obama and another from Hillary Clinton.

As the journalists hurled questions and argued among themselves, Emanuel said: "This feels a lot like a Jewish family dinner."

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Instead of taking land by force, Israelis are trying to buy it from Arab owners. For the first time, the Palestinian Authority has sanctioned a verdict of treason for making a land deal with a Jew. These are the Palestinians Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama consider to be moderates. Secretary Clinton held talks with the Palestinian Authority in early March during her Middle East visit. The Obama administration pledged $200 million to shore up the Palestinian Authority's budget and another $400 million for educational and institutional reform. I wonder if they will use US aid money to buy the rope? IsraelNationalNews.com is reporting:

A Palestinian Authority military court on Tuesday sentenced a Hevron Arab to death by hanging for the crime of selling land to Jews in Judea and Samaria, the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency reported. The three-member judicial panel heard the case last week and handed down its verdict and conviction on Tuesday.

Dozens of Arabs have been executed in the past for collaborating with Israel by selling land to Jews, but the court’s ruling is the first time the PA officially has handed down a guilty verdict of treason for the crime. Previous summary executions with the approval of the PA have been met with outcries from human rights organizations

Either the Chinese are hitting back for recent US restrictions on dangerous products or our pork does not have enough lead content. Fox News reported:

China and five other countries have banned pork and other meat products from some U.S. states, drawing criticism from U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk since officials say the swine flu is not transmitted by food.

Kirk's office said the bans were imposed because of the swine flu outbreak. The countries imposing those bans are China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.

Reuters reports that Kirk warned those countries that such bans are not based on science and could disrupt trade.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says pork is still safe to eat, and that all food-borne germs are killed when pork is cooked to 160 F anyway.

Bucknell University students had a bake sale to protest affirmative action. They sold the goods for different prices based on race to make a point. When the Dean found out the protest wasn't in favor of affirmative action, he shut the event down on a technicality. Even though the students had the approved form filed three weeks in advance, the Dean put a stop to the sale because they were charging less than the $2 listed on the form.

GOP Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has announced he will change parties and become a Democrat. He was one of three Republican senators who jumped ship and voted with President Obama on the Stimulus bill. Arlen Specter has long been disliked by many Republicans for being on the wrong side of many of Americas most important issues. There have been rumors for several months that he would betray the Republican voters of Pennsylvania and join the Democratic Party. Republican voters sent him to the Senate five times. They should work hard to retire him permanently in 2010. Fox news reported,

Veteran GOP Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania intends to announce Tuesday he will switch political parties and run in the Democratic primary in 2010.

Republican voters had sent him to the Senate five times. But faced with the prospect of a strong challenge from conservative Pat Toomey in the GOP primary and the state trending Democratic, Specter jumped ship.

"I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters," Specter said in prepared remarks to be delivered at a news conference on Tuesday.

"I can understand their disappointment," he continued. "I am also disappointed that so many in the party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides."

The switch puts Democrats within one vote of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Democrats currently hold 56 seats in the Senate, and two independents typically vote with the party. Republicans have 41 seats, and there is one vacancy.

"Some in the Republican Party are happy about this. I am not. Let's be honest-Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record. Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don't do it first."

Former Tennessee Senator, presidential candidate, actor and current radio talk show host, Fred Thompson tells Newsmax.TV that for the first time in our history, one administration is thinking about trying another in criminal court. He notes that happens in banana republics and Third World countries, not in the U.S.A. Regarding the CIA memos on enhanced interrogation techniques, Thompson says other people would have gone to jail for what Obama did in declassifying top secret documents. He says Obama is showing "naivete, ineptitude and unbelievable arrogance."

Ex-CIA spook Michael Scheuer rips into Barack Obama for a "breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance." He accuses him of putting his personal beliefs ahead of protecting the country. Then he gets really warmed up. Read this excerpt from the Washington Post,

Surprisingly, Obama now stands alongside Bush as a genuine American Jacobin, both of them seeing the world as they want it to be, not as it is. Whereas Bush saw a world of Muslims yearning to betray their God for Western secularism, Obama gazes upon a globe that he regards as largely carnivore-free and believes that remaining threats can be defused by semantic warfare; just stop saying "War on Terror" and give talks in Turkey and on al-Arabiyah television, for example.

Americans should be clear on what Obama has done. In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families. The interrogation techniques in question, the president asserted, are a sign that Americans have lost their "moral compass," a compliment similar to Attorney General Eric Holder's identifying them as "moral cowards." Mulling Obama's claim, one can wonder what could be more moral for a president than doing all that is needed to defend America and its citizens? Or, asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?

President Obamas speech at the National Academy of Sciences Monday morning hit a brief snag when Obama got ahead of his teleprompter script.

Laying his plan for a Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Obama began to name the members of PCAST listed in his prepared remarks before realizing hed already introduced them, earlier in his speech.

“In addition to John – sorry, the – I just noticed I jumped the gun here,” Obama said, pausing for several seconds as he looked at the prompter. “Go ahead. Move it up. I had already introduced all you guys.”

A jumbo jet plane being chased by a F-16 fighter panicked New Yorkers today. Mayor Bloomberg is furious. According to MSNBC.com,

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is furious that the federal government flew a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet near ground zero part of a government photo opportunity and training mission.

The incident on Monday caused a brief panic among workers, who said they were not notified in advance.

Bloomberg said the flyover so near the World Trade Center site showed "poor judgment" and was insensitive. He said he is furious that the New York Police Department and another city agency were notified last week, but did not tell him.

The Obama administration is rolling back rules on union finance and compensation reporting. Apparently, their desire to increase regulations on businesses does not extend to unions. The Obama administration does not think holding union leaders to reporting standards for compensation and finances is a good use of resources. Perhaps, this will make it easier to hide those large donations to Democrats and their PAC's. A few campaign contributions have make democrats forget about Jimmy Hoffa. (pictured right)According to Washington Times,

The Obama administration, which has boasted about its efforts to make government more transparent, is rolling back rules requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation.

The Labor Department noted in a recent disclosure that "it would not be a good use of resources" to bring enforcement actions against union officials who do not comply with conflict of interest reporting rules passed in 2007. Instead, union officials will now be allowed to file older, less detailed conflict reports.

The regulation, known as the LM-30 rule, was at the heart of a lawsuit that the AFL-CIO filed against the department last year. One of the union attorneys in the case, Deborah Greenfield, is now a high-ranking deputy at Labor, who also worked on the Obama transition team on labor issues.

When pandering to his UAW union base, President Obama has revealed the morally corrupt level to which he is willing to stoop. According to Freep.com, the Obama administration is pressing secured creditors of GM to take a ten percent stake in the new company in exchange for $43 billion in secured bond debt. The UAW is being offered a 39% stake in the the new company for $10 billion of the $20 billion owed to the health care fund. The Government is planning on taking a 50% stake for forgiving $10 billion in TARP loans. Stockholders will get the other 1%. Where is the fairness in this deal? Why should the UAW and the Government get four or five times the stock in exchange for forgiving one fourth the debt of the bondholders? This is clearly a case of throwing the financial institutions, that risked their stockholders hard earned money, under the bus to prop up the extravagant benefit package of union members who enjoyed bloated wage and benefit packages for their entire careers. Normally, secured debt holders would own over 90% of a company after bankruptcy. Taxpayers were promised the TARP loans would be called and they would go to the front of the line to recover these loans in case of bankruptcy. Now, taxpayers are being asked to donate $10 billion in a wealth transfer to the UAW. Also, there will be severe repercussions in the credit markets. Who will loan money to America's large unionized companies if a judge allows this deal to stand? Lenders will realize they go to the back of the line with stockholders if there is a bankruptcy. They will not be willing to loan money to any large unionized company unless they have a stellar credit rating. Consequently, cash flow will become tighter and more companies may be forced into insolvency unless the Government intervenes with taxpayer money. President Obama is morally corrupt to propose a deal of this nature. Where is the fairness in asking people who pay for their own health care and must fund their own retirements to bailout someone who received bloated and extravagant wages and benefits their entire lives? Not only is this proposal unfair to bondholders and taxpayers, this deal would be unfair to Ford. Having to negotiate a contract with someone that owns 40% of one of their biggest competitors puts Ford at a severe competitive disadvantage.

So far Toyota has fended off all lawsuits for these problems. Toyota's defense seems to be that the "environmentalists" buying the Prius are too "stupid" to safely drive them. Meanwhile, anecdotal reports of problems keep piling up. The Seattle Weekly reports,

Sometimes the cars accelerate on their own. Sometimes they stop dead. Drivers of the hybrid Prius have discovered they can be an unexpected adventure.By Paul KnightPublished on April 21, 2009 at 8:17pm

Bobette Riner publishes an electricity index used to promote renewable energy, and she bought a brand-new Prius last year to shoot the bird at the oil companies

"I felt so smug for a while," she says. "Especially being in Houston."

She had been lucky to score the car from a dealership on Houston's south side, because for nearly a year there had been a three-month wait to get a Prius. The dealership couldn't even keep a model for the showroom.

The car had a "cute little body" that Riner loved, and she reveled in driving like a "nerdy Prius owner," watching the energy-usage display on the car's center console, trying to drain every possible mile from a gallon of gasoline. When she hit 2,000 miles, she could count her trips to a gas station on one hand.

On a rainy night last fall, a couple of months after Riner bought her Prius, she was driving toward the Houston Galleria for a sales meeting. She hated driving in the rain because a car wreck in college catapulted her through the windshield, and doctors almost had to amputate her leg.

Traffic near the mall was congested but moving, and Riner kept the Prius pegged at 60 mph, constantly looking at the console to manage her fuel consumption.

Suddenly she felt the car hydroplaning out of control, and when she glanced at the speedometer she realized the car had shot up to 84 mph. Riner wasn't hydroplaning; quite simply, her Prius had accelerated on its own.

She pushed on the brakes but they were dead. Then just as suddenly as the car had taken off, it shut down. The console lit up with warning lights, leaving Riner fighting a stiff steering wheel as she coasted across four lanes of traffic and down an exit ramp.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

An Iranian arms ship has been sunk by missiles from an unknown boat. The Iranian ship was suspected of carrying weapons to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Although the missile firer is unknown, my money is on the Israelis. President Obama does not have the "cahones" to authorize this kind of attack. Reported by Ynet.

Report: Iranian arms ship sunk off Sudan coast

Egyptian weekly says missiles fired by 'unidentified boat which may have been Israeli or American'Ynet

An Egyptian weekly reported Sunday that an Iranian ship carrying weapons traveling en route to the Gaza Strip has been sunk in the Red Sea, off the coast of Sudan.

Al-Usbua's report quotes sources from Sudan's capitol Khartoum, who say missiles were fired towards the ship from "an unidentified boat, which may be Israeli or American."

The report says the Iranian ship was headed for Sudan in order to unload the weapons, which would then travel by land to the Gaza Strip. But the ship was sunk by the missiles, along with its crew.

The swine flu pandemic(outbreak) has crossed the border into the U.S. Twenty cases have been reported so far this month. According to the CDC,

Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the United States. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally. The current U.S. case count is provided below.

The New York Times is headed to an almost inevitable bankruptcy. The owe more than $1 billion. They lost another $75 million in the first quarter of this year and cash is running low($34 million.) In recent years, They have lost both readers and advertisers. Many people claim their left wing bias has cost them severely. They attacked President Bush unrelentingly. Now, they have become what amounts to little more than a propaganda outlet for Barack Obama and progressive democrats. Market forces should be allowed to rule and this dinosaur of the left should die. This is sad. Once, the New York Times was the most highly respected newspaper in the U.S. Editorial by Bill O’Reilly via Boston Herald.

The nation’s largest left-wing newspaper and the bible for network news producers and bookers may be going under. This past week, The New York Times [NYT] announced more staggering losses: nearly $75 million in the first quarter alone. The New York Post is reporting that the Times Company owes more than $1 billion and has just $34 million in the bank. A few months ago, the company borrowed $250 million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim at a reported 14 percent interest rate. With things going south fast (pardon the pun), Slim might want to put in a call to Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

The spin from Sulzberger is that the Internet is strangling the newspaper industry, and there is some truth to that. Why read an ideologically crazed paper when you can acquire a variety of information on your computer? But other papers are not suffering nearly as much as the Times, so there must be more to it.

There is no question that the Times has journalistic talent. This week the paper won five Pulitzers. It’s true that the Pulitzer people favor left-wing operations (the past eight Pulitzer Prizes for commentary have gone to liberal writers), but New York Times journalists often do good reporting.

The problem is that under Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller, the Times has gone crazy left, attacking those with whom the paper disagrees and demonstrating a hatred for conservatives (particularly President Bush) that is almost pathological. The Times features liberal columnists in every section of the paper, and they hit low, often using personal invective to smear perceived opponents.

President Obama has passed the 100 day mark in his Presidency. The Main Stream Media have give him glowing reviews. Since the MSM chooses to overlook his mistakes, The New York Post has compiled a list of the top one hundred. Here are the first twelve.

1. "Obama criticized pork barrel spending in the form of 'earmarks,' urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress. 'Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability,' Obama said." -- McClatchy, 3/11

2. "There is no doubt that we've been living beyond our means and we're going to have to make some adjustments." -- Obama during the campaign.

3. This year's budget deficit: $1.5 trillion.

4. Asks his Cabinet to cut costs in their departments by $100 million -- a whopping .0027%!

5. "The White House says the president is unaware of the tea parties." -- ABC News, 4/15

6. "Mr. Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the 'teleprompt president' over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech." -- Sky News, 3/18

7. In early February, the 2010 census was moved out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House, politicizing how federal aid is distributed and electoral districts are drawn.

8. Obama taps Nancy Killefer for a new administration job, First Chief Performance Officer -- to police government spending. But it surfaces that Killefer had performance issues of her own -- a tax lien was slapped on her DC home in 2005 for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. She withdrew.

9. Turkey tried to block the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as new NATO secretary general because he didn't properly punish the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Mohammed. France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel were outraged; Obama said he supported Turkey's induction into the European Union.

10. . . . and he never mentioned the Armenian genocide.

11. The picture of Obama and Hugo Chavez shaking hands.

12. Hugo Chavez gave him the anti-American screed "The Open Veins of Latin America." Obama didn't remark upon it. At least it wasn't DVDs.

During a private White House meeting with GOP leaders, Obama complained about their failure to support his pork laden stimulus bill and threatened to use "reconciliation" to prevent filibuster of his health care bill. Reconciliation is a legislative process that limit debate on spending bill to 20 hours in the Senate. No filibuster is possible. This process has been used only thirteen times since 1980. According to alternet.org,

A GOP source familiar with the meeting said that the president was extremely sensitive -- even "thin-skinned" -- to the fact that the stimulus bill received no GOP votes in the House. He continually brought it up throughout the meeting.

Obama also offered payback for that goose egg. A major overhaul of the health care system, he told the Republican leadership, would be done using a legislative process known as reconciliation, meaning that the GOP won't be able to filibuster it.

President Obama has paid the international law firm Perkins Coie $1 million in legal fees to quash the release of his original birth certificate and college records. According to Federal Election Commission records for the first quarter of 2009,

Candidate Barack Obama previously paid $378,375.52 to this law firm in the last quarter of 2008.

AP put out a poll that received a lot of play in the media for showing the number of people who think the country is on the right track rose significantly from 40% to 48%. The problem is the internal poll numbers show they have Republicans as 18% of the population. American Thinker has the details,

Just read an AP report: the percentage of Americans that think the country is on the right track rose to 48% in March as compared to 40% in February. In light of the unemployment rising, the debacle in foreign affairs etc, I found it unlikely. So I looked into the details of the poll.

73% of the Democrats polled thought we were on the right track17% of Independents10% of Republicans

That made it even more suspicious as to how those numbers could result in a 48% overall right track vote.

So digging deeper, it turns out

36% of those polled were Democrats18% Republican26% Independent18% None claimed

In the 2008 election the spread between Democrats and Republicans was 6.5 percentage points not 18 and independents made up 22% of the vote not 26%.

It appears that there have been similar distortions in the various polls measuring Obama's approval ratings.

Bill Maher goes on a rant against Republicans and calls them divorced from reality. He said Republicans should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments. Maher ridicules people who want to see Obama's birth certificate, think American Presidents should not bow to the Saudi's or "be best buddies with third world dictators. In a LA Times commentary,

If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments.

It's been a week now, and I still don't know what those "tea bag" protests were about. I saw signs protesting abortion, illegal immigrants, the bank bailout and that gay guy who's going to win "American Idol." But it wasn't tax day that made them crazy; it was election day. Because that's when Republicans became what they fear most: a minority.

The conservative base is absolutely apoplectic because, because ... well, nobody knows. They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. Even though they're not quite sure what "it" is. But they know they're fed up with "it," and that "it" has got to stop.

Here are the big issues for normal people: the war, the economy, the environment, mending fences with our enemies and allies, and the rule of law.

And here's the list of Republican obsessions since President Obama took office: that his birth certificate is supposedly fake, he uses a teleprompter too much, he bowed to a Saudi guy, Europeans like him, he gives inappropriate gifts, his wife shamelessly flaunts her upper arms, and he shook hands with Hugo Chavez and slipped him the nuclear launch codes.

Rep. Blackburn quizzed Al Gore about his profit motive for promoting global warming. He claims, "Every penny I have made, I have put into a nonprofit." Also, Al Gore said, "If you believe the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is greed, you don't know me." Al Gore has donated the proceeds from the movie and book to a nonprofit, but he has definitely gotten rich off the global warming scam. He has been charging $175,000 for the same canned global warming speech for years and he has extensive investments in companies benefiting from global warming legislation. When Al Gore left office in 2000, he had a net worth of only about two million dollars. He is now estimated to be worth $100 million. Since he has been focused almost exclusively on global warming for the last eight years, it is disingenuous to claim he donated "every penny" to nonprofits. From Bloomberg.com,

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore left the White House seven years ago with less than $2 million in assets, including a Virginia home and the family farm in Tennessee. Now he's making enough to put $35 million in hedge funds and other private partnerships.

Gore invested the money with Capricorn Investment Group LLC, a Palo Alto, California, firm that selects the private funds for clients and invests in makers of environmentally friendly products, according to a Feb. 1 securities filing. Capricorn was founded by billionaire Jeffrey Skoll, former president of EBay Inc. and an executive producer of Gore's Oscar-winning documentary film on global warming.

The town of Tuscarora in Nevada is repelling a Mormon cricket invasion by blasting hard rock music at them. Personally, I would have thought rap music would be a better repellent. According to the Wall Street Journal,

TUSCARORA, Nev. -- The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They'll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault.

Then they'll turn up the volume.

Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way.

But the crickets don't much fancy Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones, the townspeople figured out three years ago. So next month, Tuscarorans are preparing once again to get out their extension cords, array their stereos in a quarter-circle and tune them to rock station KHIX, full blast, from dawn to dusk. "It is part of our arsenal," says Laura Moore, an unemployed college professor and one of the town's 13 residents.

Friday, April 24, 2009

President Obama celebrated Earth Day by flying 895 miles and burning 8,950 gallons of fuel. Why aren't environmentalists up in arms when a Democrat wastes energy? According to CBS News Political Hotsheet,

It happens every time a president leaves town to make an Earth Day speech. Reporters scramble to point out how much fuel was expended so the President could talk about conserving energy and using alternative fuels.

In flying to and from Iowa today, President Obama took two flights on Air Force One and four on Marine One.

The press office at Andrews AFB wouldn’t give me the fuel consumption numbers for the 747 that serves as Air Force One without the approval of the White House Press Office, which as I write this has yet to be given.

But Boeing says its 747 burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile. It’s 895 miles from Washington to Des Moines, so a round trip brings the fuel consumption for the fixed-wing portion of the President’s trip to 8,950 gallons.

Meanwhile, Al Gore celebrates Earth Day by begging for more money for Democrats in the House of Representatives. From politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

Rep. Dingell(D-Michigan) grilled Al Gore on Cap and Trade. He called Cap and Trade a "a tax and a great big one." He seems to be advocating a direct tax on carbon. Rep. Dingell gets kudos for honesty, even if he is wrong on this issue. Al Gore obfuscates as usual.

President Obama quietly announces he was not going to try to renegotiate NAFTA Monday. Undoubtedly, he got blasted by his counterparts at the Summit of the Americas over the weekend. This will make some of his base angry if the Main Stram Media ever report the news. Don't hold your breath for that to happen. From online.wsj.com,

Three cheers for President Obama's decision, announced quietly on Monday, to repudiate a campaign promise and not press for new labor and environmental regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The last thing the Western Hemisphere needs are more trade barriers that would snarl supply chains and damage commerce.

Perhaps we should call this Austan Goolsbee's revenge. Recall that last year the Obama economic adviser had told a Canadian diplomat to ignore Mr. Obama's Nafta campaign rhetoric; the candidate was merely pandering to Big Labor. When that disclosure became news, Mr. Goolsbee was banished to the campaign's isolation ward for imperfect spinners. Now we know Mr. Goolsbee -- not the candidate -- was the one telling the truth.

Mr. Obama got an earful on trade from his counterparts at the Summit of the Americas over the weekend and that might have something to do with his Nafta walkback. But three other trade issues to watch are the unilateral U.S. ban on Mexican long-haul trucks, which has sparked a trade war with that country, the U.S. failure to ratify a free trade agreement with Colombia, and the 54-cent per gallon U.S. import duty on Brazilian ethanol. Mr. Obama has promised to discuss each one. But the real test will be his willingness to spend political capital to defeat protectionists in Congress.

A FOX News poll shows Obama is has same popularity as Bush in first term, but Obama's numbers show a more partisan divide.FOX News reported:

The president's approval is nearly identical to the job rating George W. Bush received at the same point in his first term, as 63 percent of Americans approved and 22 percent disapproved (April 18-19, 2001). One noticeable difference is that approval of Obama is much more divided along partisan lines today than Bush's ratings were eight years ago.

Gallup reports that 56% of the public believes that Obama is doing an excellent/good job. Gallup reported 62% approved of George W. Bush's job performance after the first 100 days. MSM tells us how popular Barack Obama is but the numbers tell a different story especially when used comparatively. Comparing the Gallup poll taken following the first 100 day of George W. Bush and Barack Obama is rather informative especially given the highly contentious nature of the 2000 election.

Gallup: First-100-Days-Obama-Meets-Exceeds-Expectations. By the way, the wording of the question is most suspect as many (including me) expected him to do just as poorly as he is doing. But Gallup is going even further. It uses his daily tracking poll to cover up the results of the 100 day poll.

Obama's pick for traffic safety czar, Chuck Hurley, has never meet a regulation he does not like. He is the CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He wants to bring back the 55 mph speed limit and lower the allowable blood-alcohol content (BAC) for drivers to .04(one glass of wine). Chuck Hurley also supports random pullovers to make sure drivers aren't doing anything wrong. He does not understand the concept of presumption of innocence. Chuck Hurley is also part of a group lobbying for red light and speed cameras. We all want safe highways, but Mr. Hurley is clearly an extremist. The Senate should put him "on the road," not at the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to this Washington Times editorial,

President Obama's pick to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raises a few red flags. If confirmed by the Senate, Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will drive motorists over the cliff with regulation.

The nation's traffic-safety czar has broad powers to control the roads and road-going habits of Americans. Mr. Hurley has a history of pushing laws that harass millions of law-abiding citizens to ensnare a few lawbreakers. He supports returning the 55 mph speed limit to our highways as well as roadblocks and random pullovers to make sure drivers aren't doing anything wrong. This methodology is based on a presumption of guilt - not innocence - of the average driver who is doing nothing wrong.

Mr. Hurley has promoted a mania of overregulation at MADD. Absent from his advocacies is the principle that a punishment should fit the crime, or that a crime even needs to be committed to incur a penalty. Under this influence, MADD has been lobbying to lower the allowable blood-alcohol content (BAC) for drivers to .04 - which means one glass of Pinot can land anyone behind bars. The constant lowering of BAC limits has separated what is punishable from what is actually dangerous.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

After meeting with President Obama, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has declared victory for socialism. He is very optimistic socialism has now come to America. Perhaps he learned something in private conversation with President Obama.

(CNSNews.com) - Inspired by his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Americas Summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared on Sunday that Venezuelan socialism has begun to reach the United States under the Obama administration.

“I am coming back from Trinidad and Tobago, from the Americas Summit where, without a doubt, the position that Venezuela and its government has always defended, especially starting 10 years ago, of resistance, dignity, sovereignty and independence has obtained in Port of Spain, one of the biggest victories of our history,” Chavez said.

“It would seem that the changes that started in Venezuela in the last decade of the 20th century have begun to reach North America,” he added. (excerpt) read more at CNSNews.com

At a Congressional hearing today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about former Vice-President Dick Cheney's request for release of more documents relating to the success of CIA interrogation methods. Hillary responded: "He's not a reliable source."Video via CNN.Embedded video from CNN Video

The first talks between North and South Korea were broken off after only 22 minutes. Apparently, the South Koreans wanted to talk about a detained businessman and the North Koreans weren't interested. Based on recent North Korean actions and statements, I doubt anything short of a formal surrender would have kept the talks going. CNN is reporting,

(CNN) -- Details emerged Wednesday from the first government-to-government talks between the two Koreas in more than a year.

The two sides were to discuss business deals tied to the Kaesung Industrial Complex in North Korea, which is run by both nations. The talks broke off after the North Korean delegation refused to discuss the release of a detained South Korean worker, saying he was not on the agenda, according to South Korean officials.

Democratic strategist, Steve Murphy, said Dick Cheney needs to shut up. He accused Cheney of political motives and not pursuing what is best for America. Dick Cheney has been on a campaign to warn Obama is making the country more vulnerable to attack by pulling back on Bush's policies. How can asking for the release of documents proving what we did worked be considered political and not in the best interests of America? The truth should always be welcome, if national security is not put at risk. Progressives don't want the truth because the truth conflicts with their world view and political agenda. Steve Murphy's statement is outrageous.

In the strangest news, a Mexican drug gang responsible for drug running, murder and prostitution of young girls claims to have trained their members in ethics, values and moral principles. This is taking the progressive idea that morals and values are "relative" to an extreme level. Reuters is reporting,

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A cartel engaged in Mexico's deadly drug wars has told its members to avoid heavy drinking and using narcotics and live a clean family life as it tries to build a well-run criminal organization, police say.

Rafael Cedeno, a leader of "The Family" cartel based in the western state of Michoacan, told police after he was arrested at the weekend he had trained several thousand cartel members with courses in ethics and personal improvement.

"The indoctrination of this group consisted of courses they considered to be for personal improvement, values, ethical and moral principles of the criminal gang. The objective was for the subordinates to avoid drugs, hard drinking and maintain family unity," the federal police said in a statement.

Cedeno, 47, was picked up at a family baptism on Saturday with 43 others after a raid by police in helicopters. Accusations against him include ordering the murder of rivals and running prostitution rings of young girls.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Released Justice Dept. memos show that the CIA's interrogation techniques prevented the "Second Wave" of attacks in the US. According to the leaked memos, the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including [Khalid Sheik Mohammed] and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques." This information included plans for Al Qaeda to take down the tallest building(the Library Tower) on the West Coast in a second wave attack. This information was buried in the released memos and ignored by the Main Stream Media until now. The Washington Post reported,

Specifically, interrogation with enhanced techniques "led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the 'Second Wave,' 'to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into' a building in Los Angeles." KSM later acknowledged before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay that the target was the Library Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. The memo explains that "information obtained from KSM also led to the capture of Riduan bin Isomuddin, better known as Hambali, and the discovery of the Guraba Cell, a 17-member Jemmah Islamiyah cell tasked with executing the 'Second Wave.' " In other words, without enhanced interrogations, there could be a hole in the ground in Los Angeles to match the one in New York.

I wouldn't. Samuel Wurzelbacher, the man who became known in the 2008 presidential campaign as "Joe the Plumber" is campaigning for New Jersey Republican Steve Lonegan who is running for Governor. Lonegan's campaign is charging $1,000 for a private meeting with "Joe the Plumber." Let's see. That should raise about $0.00. Here is the story from WCBS Newsradio.

Steve Lonegan's campaign announced the man who became known in the 2008 presidential campaign will appear at a taxpayer rally in Clark on May 5.

Lonegan is seeking the GOP nomination for governor along with former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie and Assemblyman Rick Merkt.

Lonegan's campaign is charging $1,000 for a private meeting with the one-time plumber and the candidate. General admission is $50.

President Obama opened the door to prosecution of Bush officials for legal opinions relating to the definition of torture. Previously, Obama had ruled out the possibility of prosecution of any Bush Administration officials. Instead, he released CIA documents relating to the methods used. Barack Obama misjudged his base on this issue. He thought they would be satisfied with the document release and he could put this issue behind him. However, outrage and demands for prosecution grew among his left wing base. Now, Obama is doing a 180 so fast his head will spin. President Obama is terrified of losing his liberal base, but he wishes this issue would go away. According to Yahoo News,

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama left the door open Tuesday to prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised the legal authority for gruesome terror-suspect interrogations, saying the United States lost "our moral bearings" with use of the tactics.

The question of whether to bring charges against those who devised justification for the methods "is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws and I don't want to prejudge that," Obama said. The president discussed the continuing issue of terrorism-era interrogation tactics with reporters as he finished an Oval Office meeting with visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Al Qaeda's deputy commander, Ayman Zawahri attacked the U.S and President Obama in an unauthenticated tape. He uses Obama's decision to withdraw from Iraq as proof we have not defeated Al Qaeda. He calls Obama's election a political triumph for Al-Qaeda and the result of US defeat in Iraq. Story reported by AKI.

Barack Obama's election as US president has failed to lift America's status in the Muslim and Arab world, and is a victory for Al-Qaeda, according to a new audio message allegedly from the terror network's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The video was posted on key jihadist websites on Monday.

The authenticity of the tape is yet to be verified. The purported message is in Arabic and, unlike previous ones, contains no English subtitles. The message is edited with extracts from recent Arabic TV interviews with Arab political analysts.

"In our view, America is still the country that kills Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. It is the country that steals our assets and occupies our lands, and which props up thieving and corrupt Arab regimes.

"The Islamic nation has opted to revive Islam and refuses to give in to oppression. Killing or capturing people casts the US in an even worse light. The US airstrikes in Pakistan pour oil on the flames and will lead to further defeats for that country," al-Zawahiri says.

President Obama declassified interrogation techniques authorized for use by the CIA and the legal opinions surrounding them. He did this against the advice of the current CIA Director and several former Directors. They are concerned this will cause institutional timidity and fear of recrimination similar to what weakened intelligence gathering in the past. The justification for release was that the methods don't work anyway, and that those who are subjected to them will simply make up information in order to end their ordeal. Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is calling Obama's hand on that claim. He claims to have seen classified documents that prove the methods were effective and gained valuable intelligence. He is publicly calling for those documents to be released.

DICK CHENEY: “One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort. And there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified.”

“I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven't announced this up until now, I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”

“And I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”

Monday, April 20, 2009

Unfortunately, the dictatorship is not Iran, Cuba or Venezuela. It is the small African country of Eritrea. This breakaway region of Ethiopia is supporting a Somalian terrorist group linked to an alleged plot to attack President Barack Obama at the inauguration. President Obama seems happy to be friends with dictators, but this made it personal. The Telegraph is reporting,

The US has warned Eritrea it risks American military action for its support for a Somalian terrorist group linked to a plot to attack President Barack Obama.

It champions al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that American intelligence believes has trained a dozen of its own citizens to carry out attacks in the US.

President Obama's January inauguration was hit by FBI warnings about a potential suicide threat from 12 American citizens that had left Africa to infiltrate the US and disappeared.

Subsequently Washington quietly warned Eritrea, a former Italian colony which was occupied by Britain during the Second World War, it could suffer the same fate as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, if the plot was carried out.

President Obama has asked his Cabinet to cut $100 million dollars from the budget. This might seem like a lot to us working stiffs, but it is a drop in the bucket to Washington. As Instapundit blogged,

FAKE BUDGET CUTS? “In our age of trillion-dollar budgets and deficits, $100 million is a rounding error at a Department of Agriculture regional office.”

At the end of the fifth Summit of the Americas, President Obama bid farewell to his new friend dictator Hugo Chavez. He reportedly said, "Good bye, my friend." With friends like this, who needs enemies? Here is the video in Spanish.

John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, is young, hip, attractive, socially open minded and a Republican. The base of the Republican Party needs to be expanded among young Americans. Meghan McCain could be the poster girl for that expansion. In recent years, Democrats have become very narrow minded and intolerant of different opinions. There is a great opportunity for Republicans if they can get their message of inclusion and diversity across. Meghan McCain's Log Cabin Manifesto

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Actually, Al Gore is still in denial, but the evidence keeps stacking up. We have had reports of Arctic ice growth in the last year. Of course the 'global warming' theorists claimed this was dramatically offset by Antarctic ice melting. That does not appear to be true. Antarctic ice is growing too according to this Fox News report,

Report: Antarctic Ice Growing, Not Shrinking

Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

East Antarctica is four times the size of west Antarctica and parts of it are cooling. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research report prepared for last week's meeting of Antarctic Treaty nations in Washington noted the South Pole had shown "significant cooling in recent decades.

Australia Antarctic Division glaciology program head Ian Allison said sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica.

If that is not enough evidence, All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.As you can see from this graph, global temperatures have been flat to slightly downward since peaking in 1998. This trend is in spite of a sharp rise in global CO2. There does not seem to be good 'cause and effect' to support carbon emission's link to global temperatures.

Candidate Obama pledged to stand up against Cuba oppression when pandering for Cuban votes during the 2008 election. He said there was no place for this kind of tyranny and he wouldn't stand for that kind on injustice. Of course, the election is over. Now, he wants to improve relations with the oppressors and treat them as equal partners. Here is the video in case anyone forgot the strong words Obama said about Cuba and Cuban oppression. Obama Speech On Cuba

CNN keeps having YouTube take down the video of their reporter, Susan Rosegen, calling tea party attenders anti-government, anti-CNN and organized by Fox News. Founding Bloggers shot additional video of the confrontation with CNN reporter Susan Rosegen. The crowd accused her of picking out the most radical attendees. The protesters point out tea party protests are not anti-Democrat. They point to a sign saying "Republicans s#ck too." I am not sure how long this video will continue to be available.

Chicago Tax Day Tea Party - What CNN Did Not Show You Behind The Scenes - Reporter Owned 4/16/09 (language warning)

President Obama delayed dispatching the seal team to rescue Captain Phillips for thirty six hours because they didn't want to use lethal force. Then, the White House rejected two rescue plans offered up by the Seal commander. They imposed very severe rules of engagement on the seal team. If a pirates had not pointed his AK-47 at Captain Phillips, he might still be held hostage. Of course the White House, liberals and most of the Main Steam Media gave Obama credit for the rescue. The truth is he was a hindrance to the rescue effort. WorldNetDaily is reporting,

WASHINGTON – While Barack Obama is basking in praise for his "decisive" handling of the Somali pirate attack on a merchantship in the India Ocean, reliable military sources close to the scene are painting a much different picture of the incident – accusing the president of employing restrictive rules of engagement that actually hampered the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips and extended the drama at sea for days.

Multiple opportunities to free the captain of the Maersk Alabama from three young pirates were missed, these sources say – all because a Navy SEAL team was not immediately ordered to the scene and then forced to operate under strict, non-lethal rules of engagement.

They say the response duty office at the Pentagon was initially unwilling to grant an order to use lethal force to rescue Phillips. They also report the White House refused to authorize deployment of a Navy SEAL team to the location for 36 hours, despite the recommendation of the on-scene commander.

The White House also turned down two rescue plans offered up by the Seal commander on the scene and the captain of the USS Bainbridge.

The SEAL team operated under rules of engagement that required them to do nothing unless the hostage's life was in "imminent' danger.

The FBI has a huge database collected from many sources. We don't know what is in it because President Bush made the contents secret. President Obama ran on a promise for open government. He has decided he wants to keep the FBI database secret too.

PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama keeps some Bush secrets

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite a pledge to open government, the Obama administration has endorsed a Bush-era decision to keep secret key details of an FBI computer database that allows agents and analysts to search a billion documents with a wealth of personal information about Americans and foreigners.

President Barack Obama's Justice Department quietly told a federal court in Washington last week that it would not second-guess the previous administration's decisions to withhold some information about the bureau's Investigative Data Warehouse.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, had sued under the Freedom of Information Act to get records showing how the FBI protects the privacy of Americans whose personal information winds up in the vast database.

As a result, there is no public list of all the databases the FBI sucks into this computer warehouse; no information on how individuals can correct errors about them in this FBI database; and no public access to assessments the bureau did of the warehouse's impact on Americans' privacy. (excerpt) read more at breitbart.com.